RACESTER: John Ramm is used to being in contention after most of his LIV rounds of golf this season. But for the first time after joining the league, it has absolute superiority.
Thanks to a bogey-free 8-under 63, Rams took a two-shot lead over Abraham Unser and Andy Ogletree after the first round at LIV Golf UK by JCB. Meanwhile, his Legion XIII leads the team leaderboard by one stroke over Smash GC, HyFlyers GC and Fireballs GC.
Friday's round was the 29th that Ram has finished at LIV Golf. He has finished in the top 5 after 13 rounds since that round, including a tie for the lead after the first round in Jeddah.
Six other times, Rahm has been in the top 10. In each of his nine completed tournaments – he was forced to withdraw in Houston due to a foot infection – he has posted a top-10 finish and is currently second to the Torque GC captain. Joaquin Nieman in the ranking of the points of a season.
It's a remarkable display of consistency that Ram hopes will culminate with his first LIV singles golf title this week at JCB Golf & Country Club.
“Obviously, there's not much to say but good things,” said Ram, who closed the week tied for seventh at the Open Championship, his best finish of the year. “I played really good golf all day. With days like this, it almost feels effortless.”
Ram played in the same group as his teammate and former Ryder Cup partner Tyrrell Hutton, along with fellow Legion XIII player Caleb Surratt, as the LIV Golf captains were paired with their top two teammates for the first round.
Not only did Rahm go down — the 8-under is tied for the lowest LIV golf round by his peer — but Houghton shot a 66 and bounced back from an opening bogey. The two contributed to Legion XIII's total of 12, which also included a 72 from Kieran Vincent. Legion XIII has won three team titles during its inaugural season and is second in the points standings behind Crushers GC.
“It was the first time I played LIV golf with my teammates,” said Rahm, who had six birdies in his final nine holes to retire. “I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I was a little curious.”
“We've shared some pretty cool stages over the last couple of years, and we usually play well when we play together,” Hutton said. “So it was good for both of us to have a good round of golf and get some momentum going into the weekend.”
Ancer, winner of a playoff earlier this year in Hong Kong, finished with a flourish. The Fireballs star birdied four of his final five holes during a brilliant round that saw him lead the field.
Ogletree's best finish during his first full LIV golf season is a tie for third in Adelaide. He has been dealing with a wrist injury that may require offseason surgery and has forced him to make some rotational adjustments to ease the pain.
“I've had a lot of days where I've played 13 and 14 holes really well and then I've kind of held myself back with a bad stretch,” the HyFlyers member said. “Today, I was at it all day and played some golf.”
Hutton and Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith are tied for fourth, while a group of seven players – including Smash GC Captain Brooks Koepka and local resident Sam Horsfield of Majesticks GC – are four strokes back in a tie for sixth place. .
On a course that was unfamiliar to most players and expected to begrudgingly miss low scores, 35 of the 54 players on the course broke even with a stroke average of more than one stroke under par. .
It was no surprise to Raham. “You can't really say it's surprising when the best players in the world show up on a course,” he said.
Classification table and counting of points for the opening round on Friday:
The three best points from each team in the first two rounds and all four points in the final round are counted. The team with the lowest cumulative points after three rounds wins the team title.
1. LEGION XIII -12 (Ram 63, Hutton 66, Vincent 72)
T2. FIREBALLS GC-11 (Anser 65, Garcia 68, Puig 69)
T2. SMASH GC-11 (Koepka 67, McDowell 67, Gooch 68)
T2. HYFLYERS GC -11 (Ogletree 65, Tringale 67, Mickelson 70)
T5. RIPPER GC-9 (Smith 66, Herbert 69, Jones 69)
T5. RANGEGOATS GC-9 (Wolff 67, Uihlein 68, Watson 69)
7. STINGER GC-8 (Oosthuizen 67, Burmester 68, Schwartzel 70)
8. TORQUE GC-6 (Munoz 68, Nieman 69, Pereira 70)
T9. CRUSHERS GC-5 (Casey 67, Lahiri 69, Kathleen 72)
T9. CLEEKS GC-5 (Meronk 68, Bland 69, Samooja 71)
11. MAJESTICS GC -4 (Horsfield 67, Stenson 70, Westwood 72)
12. 4ACES GC -1 (Warner 69, Johnson 71, Reed 72)
13. IRON HEADS GC Even (Na 70, Vincent 70, Kozuma 73)
